Knocking At The Gate

Writing in Rolling Stone , Daniel Kreps considers the life and work of progressive music pioneer Vangelis, who passed away on May 17.  “Vangelis Papathanassiou is no longer with us. For the whole world, this sad news demonstrates that the world music scene has lost the international ‘Vangelis,’ the protagonist of electronic sound, of the Oscars, of Mythology and the hits,” Greece’s prime minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis tweeted, as translated by Rolling Stone . “For us Greeks, who know his second name was Odysseus, it means that he’s begun his long trip to the Chariots of Fire. From there, he’ll always send us his notes.” Full obituary here.

Musician Nabil Ayers writes in the New York Times to assure us that the guitar solo still can and should be important, despite it being far less common in contemporary music than it used to be: “Perhaps it was inevitable that the guitar solo would outlive its usefulness,” David Browne wrote in Rolling Stone in 2019. “After all these years and innovations, what can it offer? What hasn’t already been done, from Hendrix to Stevie Ray Vaughan? But the rise of hip hop, dance music and modern pop cemented the solo’s irrelevance.” Gone are the days when guitar solos were in almost every song on rock radio airwaves, but they’re far from extinct.   Full article here.

David Browne writes in Rolling Stone : Anyone perusing a new psychedelic-era artwork exhibit in New York is bound to pause along the way and think, “Wait, isn’t that a Grateful Dead album cover?” And they would be partly correct. About 30 years ago, artist, curator and art collector Jacaeber Kastor was checking out a gallery auction and came across the nearly century-old ink drawing that served as the basis of the Dead’s logo and album art. Full text here.